Current research

The aim of my research is to identify the social-ecological conditions under which chimpanzees persist in West Africa and to evaluate the effectiveness of different conservation scenarios.

For this I am modeling the density distribution of western chimpanzees across their entire range using chimpanzee surveys that were contributed via the IUCN/SSC A.P.E.S. database and satellite data. Questions I want to answer include:

How many chimpanzees remain in West Africa?

Which ecological and socio-economic factors drive their distribution?

How can conservation actions be prioritized across the range of this taxon?

What is the financial need for the implementation of different conservation scenarios?

This work will help to prepare the upcoming update of the conservation action plans for this chimpanzee subspecies. I am involved in the evaluation of the viability and threat status of chimpanzee populations and spatial prioritization of conservation actions. This project is part of the research group "Great Ape Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation" and is supervised by Prof. Dr. Christophe Boesch, Dr. Hjalmar Kühl and Dr. Roger Mundry.